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List of early Germanic peoples

The list of early Germanic peoples is a catalog of ancient Germanic cultures, tribal groups, and other alliances of Germanic tribes and civilizations from antiquity. This information is derived from various ancient historical sources, beginning in the 2nd century BC and extending into late antiquity. By the Early Middle Ages, early forms of kingship had started to shape historical developments across Europe, with the exception of Northern Europe. In Northern Europe, influences from the Vendel Period (c.AD 550- 800) and the subsequent Viking Age (c. AD 800- 1050) played a significant role in the Germanic historical context.

The associations and locations of the numerous peoples and groups in ancient sources are often subject to heavy uncertainty and speculation, and classifications of ethnicity regarding a common culture or a temporary alliance of heterogeneous groups are disputed. It is uncertain whether certain groups are Germanic in the broader linguistic sense or whether they consisted of speakers of a Germanic language.

The names listed below are not terms for ethnic groups in any modern sense but the names of groups that were perceived in ancient and late antiquity as Germanic. It is essentially an inventory of peoples, groups, alliances and associations stretching from the Barbaricum region east of the Rhine to the north of the Danube (also known as Germania), especially those that arrived during the Migration Period.

In alphabetical order

The present list is largely based on the list of Germanic tribal names and its spelling variants contained in the first register of the Reallexikons der Germanischen Altertumskunde.

The first column contains the English name and its variants, if one is common, otherwise the traditional ancient name. The second column contains ancient names of Latin and Greek authors, the latter both in transcription and in Greek. The third column gives a brief description followed by a location.

The fifth column gives important sources of tradition for the group in question. The few main ancient sources for names and location of Germanic tribes are not linked. These are:

Linguistic predecessors

Possible ethnolinguistic kinship

East Germanic peoples (Vandilians)

North Germanic peoples (Norsemen)

West Germanic peoples

<imagemap> Image:Tribal Hidage 2.svg|thumb|400px|alt=insert description of map here|Map 15: The tribes of the Tribal Hidage. Where an appropriate article exists, it can be found by clicking on the name. rect 275 75 375 100 rect 375 100 450 150 rect 425 150 525 175 rect 200 170 300 195 rect 250 250 425 275 rect 475 300 550 315 rect 460 300 550 375 rect 75 315 200 340 rect 350 350 425 375 rect 40 375 125 400 rect 575 375 700 400 rect 185 400 275 425 rect 410 450 460 475 rect 410 475 460 500 rect 175 500 225 550 rect 250 475 360 525 rect 365 525 425 575 rect 430 530 575 565 rect 520 650 675 675 rect 150 675 295 700 rect 400 725 550 750 rect 285 775 375 800 </imagemap>

Germanic peoples or tribes of unknown ethnolinguistic kinship

Eight tribes or peoples are only mentioned by the Old Mainland Saxon wandering bard, of the Myrgingas tribe, named Widsith – Aenenes; Baningas; Deanas (they are differentiated from the Danes); Frumtingas; Herefaran; Hronas or Hronan; Mofdingas and Sycgas (not to be confused with Secgan, short name for the work in Old English called On the Resting-Places of the Saints about saints' resting places in England).

Ancient peoples with partially Germanic background

Germano-Celtic

Germano-Slavic

Ancient peoples of uncertain origin with possible Germanic or partially Germanic background

Mixed peoples that had some Germanic component

Celtic–Germanic–Iranian

Possible Germanic or non-Germanic peoples

Germanic or Slavic

Germanic or Celtic

Germanic or Dacian

Germanic or Iranian

Germanic or Balto-Finnic

Mythical founders

Many of the authors relating ethnic names of Germanic peoples speculated concerning their origin, from the earliest writers to approximately the Renaissance. One cross-cultural approach over this more than a millennium of historical speculation was to assign an eponymous ancestor of the same name as, or reconstructed from, the name of the people. For example, Hellen was the founder of the Hellenes.

Although some Enlightenment historians continued to repeat these ancient stories as though fact, today they are recognised as manifestly mythological. There was, for example, no Franko, or Francio, ancestor of the Franks. The convergence of data from history, linguistics and archaeology have made this conclusion inevitable. A list of the mythical founders of Germanic peoples follows.

See also

Notes

References

  • Thorsten Andersson: Altgermanische Ethnika. In: Namn och bygd. Tidskrift för nordisk ortnamnsforskning. 97 (2009), , pp.&nbsp;5–39 (PDF; 9.7 MB; total year).
  • Otto Bremer: Ethnographie der germanischen Stämme. In: Hermann Paul (editor): Grundriss der Germanischen Philologie. volume 2, part 1: Literaturgeschichte. 2nd, improved and enlarged edition. Karl Trübner Verlag, Strasbourg 1900, pp.&nbsp;735–930.
  • Ernst Künzl: Die Germanen (= Theiss WissenKompakt). Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, .
  • Günter Neumann: Namenstudien zum Altgermanischen (= Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde – Ergänzungsbände. volume 59). Edited by Heinrich Hettrich, Astrid van Nahl. de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2008, , .
  • Rudolf Much: Die Germania des Tacitus. 3rd considerable adult edition. Edited by Wolfgang Lange in collaboration with Herbert Jankuhn and Hans Fromm. Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 1967, .
  • Rudolf Much: Deutsche Stammeskunde. 3rd verb edition. Scientific association. Publisher, Berlin/Leipzig 1920, ; outlook Verlag, Bremen 2015, .
  • Heinrich Beck et al. (editor): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. 2nd edition. de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 1972–2008.
  • Hermann Reichert: Lexikon der altgermanischen Namen. Publisher of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1987, .
  • Ludwig Rübekeil: Völkernamen Europas. In: Ernst Eichler et al. (editor): Namenforschung. Ein internationales Handbuch zur Onomastik. volume 2, de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 1996, , pp.&nbsp;1330–1343.
  • Moritz Schönfeld: Wörterbuch der altgermanischen Personen- und Völkernamen nach der Überlieferung des klassischen Altertums (= Germanische Bibliothek. department 1: Elementar- und Handbücher. series 4: Wörterbücher. volume 2). Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 1911, ; Reprints each as 2nd, unchanged edition: (= Germanische Bibliothek. series 3 [much 2]). Winter, Heidelberg 1965, ; Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1965, .
  • Ernst Schwarz: Germanische Stammeskunde (= Germanische Bibliothek. volume 5). Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 1956, ; reprint: VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2009, .
  • Alexander Sitzmann, Friedrich E. Grünzweig: Altgermanische Ethnonyme. Ein Handbuch zu ihrer Etymologie. Using a bibliography by Robert Nedoma editor of Hermann Reichert (= Philologica Germanica. volume 29). Fassbaender, Vienna 2008, .
  • Reinhard Wenskus: Stammesbildung und Verfassung. Das Werden der frühmittelalterlichen gentes. 2nd, unchanged edition. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne/Vienna 1977, .

External links